ENTRY DESCRIPTION
Kerauno portray the impact of humankind's destructive industrial practices on the natural environment and the terrible beauty of mining’s toxic impact on the land, whilst serving as a reminder of man’s folly.

The opencast mines of Rio Tinto have been excavated continuously since the 19th century, providing heavy metal ores such as iron, copper, silver and gold. Mountains, valleys and villages have disappeared from the hungry machinery devouring the land implacably, year after year. Giant scars on the landscape have been referred to as otherworldly with terrible hues of blue, green and red. The runoffs from these mines have created an eerie blood red flow in the river, hence the name Tinto. The river flows to the gulf of Cadiz carrying high acidity levels and heavy metals, in effect making this an environment disaster, a toxic reminder of human’s ability to irreversibly destroy the landscape in the name of corporate profits, a legacy of greed for future generations.

Image captured from a light aircraft at 1000ft above the Rio Tinto Mines, Huelva, Spain.

AUTHOR
Art
Art is about communication, emotion, creativity and originality. Art is also about cognitive processes and intellectual work in relation to an underlying idea and an overall concept. Images needs to be more than merely a demonstration of technical excellence. They need to tell a story or convey a message by evoking feelings and thoughts in the observer.


The Work
Creating photographic art is my greatest passion and something I feel compelled to do. My work reflects strong dramatic emotions and the beautiful, but with a fragility and an underlying message. I consider myself an artist who uses photography to express myself.


Inspiration
Inspiration is about who you are and what you have experienced, your inner images, impressions and experiences. My desire is to create something unique, something timeless and something that inspires and creates emotions. Photographs that convey messages and ask questions. My work is inspired by the works of Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edward Burtynsky, Andreas Gursky, Howard Schatz, Elliot Erwitt, Alfred Stieglitz, and Richard Avedon.

“Photography is an art of observation. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
Elliot Erwitt


Motivation
My motivation and what compels me to create is a strong passion for photography as a medium of expression. I have a strong desire to always create better images and work consciously to further develop as a photographer. I consider feedback and criticism as important tools that enable me to learn and grow as an artist.

The passion I have for photography gives me motivation. It is in the creative process where I develop my artistic approach and it is the experiences on my journey that drives me.

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